These frequencies really *are* lost, huh!
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[4.25]
Thomas Inskeep: I assume the thought process went like this: Lost Frequencies needed a big-lunged singer, Calum Scott needed some cash. Presto, a defiantly mediocre dance-pop song guaranteed to become a smash hit in the UK (and maybe elsewhere, if they’re lucky). Though “mediocre” is more than generous.
[2]
Tim de Reuse: There is a drop of personality straining its way out of the trop-house soup it’s mired in; you can get little glimpses of what it wants to be in the playful, subdued hook, or the fluttering synthwork that drifts in through the back door once in a while. Regrettably, no spark of wit escapes the mellow black hole of Calum Scott’s performance.
[3]
Nortey Dowuona: My favorite part of this mix is the bass that enters the song as Calum drops into his midrange. It has to be such a bouncy part since all of the first verse and pre-chorus is very bright and floaty and atmospheric, and Calum’s bright, fiery voice smoulders in it and seems completely lost in it. Calum’s a belter whose voice is strong enough to carry a languid, smooth arrangement (check his recent record, “Biblical” to quake in your boots) but his strengths — his power and bright tone — are working against the song. His voice is too bright to anchor it, even before the drums come back for the second verse. It is also too powerful to be marooned in the back of the mix, even if it might have overwhelmed the groove. In fact, the drums are solid but too small, very dependent on subwoofers to make them sound powerful instead of anchoring the song so Calum doesn’t incinerate it before it can be finished. Once he is in his midrange and the bass slinks over the weak kicks, Calum sounds comfortable, the groove the song is trying to settle into springs to life and your foot gets to tapping. But once the drums enter the second verse and dip out for the pre chorus, the impact is lost. So maybe it’s a good thing it’s only 2 minutes and 53 seconds. Any longer would’ve ruined the power of that bass.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The problem with what Calum Scott believes is a clever metaphor: songs stuck in one’s head can be annoying and gross.
[4]
Alex Clifton: There’s a cool, muted energy in this song — the beat is low-key, which means Scott doesn’t have to compete with an overly complicated backing track. It’s not the best thing ever, but I will gladly pick this over any of Scott’s previous work.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: Having a negative opinion on this is the equivalent of having a snobbish opinion on cheap supermarket white bread. It has almost no taste, but a lot of people are getting nourishment from it; there is actually nothing wrong with pure function. The comparison could be extended, but for a three minute song that would be gratuitously mean for something that doesn’t deserve it.
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Calum Scott’s hyper-serious groan of a voice fits Lost Frequencies’ playful lite-dance-pop about as poorly as any singer’s performance could. It’s a case of two decent halves of a song failing to cohere — the production deserves a singer that’s having more fun, the singer deserves a production that will take his anguish more seriously.
[5]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Listen to this, not that!
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